Chapter 2 discusses local politics at the municipal government level. It focuses on land battles in the urban core between high‐ranking state units (or “socialist land masters”) ...
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Chapter 2 discusses local politics at the municipal government level. It focuses on land battles in the urban core between high‐ranking state units (or “socialist land masters”) and municipal governments. It argues that while the socialist land masters occupy premium land parcels inherited from the planned economy, the municipal government's authority is reinforced by a modernist discourse, Western urban planning doctrines, and recent policies that grant authority over state‐owned urban land to the territorial government. Rather than settling the matter of power in the city, however, municipal leaders' granted authority is tested and defined by their political, regulatory, organizational, and moral authority in negotiations with those above, within, and below them. The municipal government's regulatory capacity is especially challenged by a fragmented real estate industry that includes players from state, non‐state, and hybrid sectors.Less

Municipal Governments, Socialist Land Masters, and Urban Land Battles

You‐tien Hsing

Published in print: 2010-01-21

Chapter 2 discusses local politics at the municipal government level. It focuses on land battles in the urban core between high‐ranking state units (or “socialist land masters”) and municipal governments. It argues that while the socialist land masters occupy premium land parcels inherited from the planned economy, the municipal government's authority is reinforced by a modernist discourse, Western urban planning doctrines, and recent policies that grant authority over state‐owned urban land to the territorial government. Rather than settling the matter of power in the city, however, municipal leaders' granted authority is tested and defined by their political, regulatory, organizational, and moral authority in negotiations with those above, within, and below them. The municipal government's regulatory capacity is especially challenged by a fragmented real estate industry that includes players from state, non‐state, and hybrid sectors.

Chapter 3 examines two types of grassroots resistance in Beijing triggered by inner‐city redevelopment. One concerns property rights protests launched by pre‐Revolution private homeowners; the other focuses on residents' rights protests by long‐term inner‐city residents displaced by redevelopment projects. The homeowners succeeded in recovering their pre‐Revolution homeownership, and their protests quickly escalated to challenge the more fundamental issue of the state's exclusive claim over land and land rents. The displaced residents, on the other hand, framed their grievances and demands not as property owners, but as residents whose livelihood is rooted in the inner city. While both groups used legalistic and territorial strategies to negotiate with the state and to expand mobilization networks, the expansion of their demands from property rights to residents' rights is particularly meaningful in the pursuit of citizenship rights.Less

Grassroots Resistance: Property Rights and Residents' Rights

You‐tien Hsing

Published in print: 2010-01-21

Chapter 3 examines two types of grassroots resistance in Beijing triggered by inner‐city redevelopment. One concerns property rights protests launched by pre‐Revolution private homeowners; the other focuses on residents' rights protests by long‐term inner‐city residents displaced by redevelopment projects. The homeowners succeeded in recovering their pre‐Revolution homeownership, and their protests quickly escalated to challenge the more fundamental issue of the state's exclusive claim over land and land rents. The displaced residents, on the other hand, framed their grievances and demands not as property owners, but as residents whose livelihood is rooted in the inner city. While both groups used legalistic and territorial strategies to negotiate with the state and to expand mobilization networks, the expansion of their demands from property rights to residents' rights is particularly meaningful in the pursuit of citizenship rights.

This book addresses the role of suburban elites in setting development agendas for urban municipalities and their larger metropolitan regions. It shows how major nongovernmental, nonmarket ...
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This book addresses the role of suburban elites in setting development agendas for urban municipalities and their larger metropolitan regions. It shows how major nongovernmental, nonmarket institutions are taking responsibility for reshaping Philadelphia, led by suburban and state elites who sit on boards and recruit like-minded suburban colleagues to join them. In Philadelphia and other American cities, Third-Sector organizations have built and expanded hospitals, universities, research centers, performing arts venues, museums, parks, and waterfronts, creating whole new districts that are expanding outward from the city's historic downtown. The book argues that suburban elites have recognized the importance of the central city to their own future and have intervened to redevelop central city land and institutions. Suburban interests and state allies have channeled critical investments in downtown development and K–12 education. The book contrasts those suburban priorities with transportation infrastructure and neighborhood redevelopment, two policy domains in which suburban elites display less strategic engagement. The book is a rich examination of the promise and difficulty of governance that is increasingly distinct from elected government and thus divorced from the usual means of democratic control within an urban municipality.Less

From the Outside In : Suburban Elites, Third-Sector Organizations, and the Reshaping of Philadelphia

Carolyn T. Adams

Published in print: 2014-09-29

This book addresses the role of suburban elites in setting development agendas for urban municipalities and their larger metropolitan regions. It shows how major nongovernmental, nonmarket institutions are taking responsibility for reshaping Philadelphia, led by suburban and state elites who sit on boards and recruit like-minded suburban colleagues to join them. In Philadelphia and other American cities, Third-Sector organizations have built and expanded hospitals, universities, research centers, performing arts venues, museums, parks, and waterfronts, creating whole new districts that are expanding outward from the city's historic downtown. The book argues that suburban elites have recognized the importance of the central city to their own future and have intervened to redevelop central city land and institutions. Suburban interests and state allies have channeled critical investments in downtown development and K–12 education. The book contrasts those suburban priorities with transportation infrastructure and neighborhood redevelopment, two policy domains in which suburban elites display less strategic engagement. The book is a rich examination of the promise and difficulty of governance that is increasingly distinct from elected government and thus divorced from the usual means of democratic control within an urban municipality.

Hailed by corporate, philanthropic, and governmental organizations as a metaphor for democratic interaction and business dynamics, contemporary jazz culture has a story to tell about the relationship ...
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Hailed by corporate, philanthropic, and governmental organizations as a metaphor for democratic interaction and business dynamics, contemporary jazz culture has a story to tell about the relationship between political economy and social practice in the era of neoliberal capitalism. The Jazz Bubble approaches the emergence of the neoclassical jazz aesthetic since the 1980s as a powerful, if unexpected, point of departure for a wide-ranging investigation of important social trends during this period. The emergence of financialization as a key dimension of the global economy shapes a variety of aspects of contemporary jazz culture, and jazz culture comments upon this dimension in turn. During the stateside return of Dexter Gordon in the mid-1970s, the cultural turmoil of the New York fiscal crisis served as a crucial backdrop to understanding the resonance of Gordon’s appearances in the city. The financial markets directly inform the structural upheaval that major label jazz subsidiaries must navigate in the music industry of the early twenty-first century, and they inform the disruptive impact of urban redevelopment in communities that have relied upon jazz as a site of economic vibrancy. In examining these issues, The Jazz Bubble seeks to intensify conversations surrounding music, culture, and political economy.
Less

Jazz Bubble : Neoclassical Jazz in Neoliberal Culture

Dale Chapman

Published in print: 2018-04-03

Hailed by corporate, philanthropic, and governmental organizations as a metaphor for democratic interaction and business dynamics, contemporary jazz culture has a story to tell about the relationship between political economy and social practice in the era of neoliberal capitalism. The Jazz Bubble approaches the emergence of the neoclassical jazz aesthetic since the 1980s as a powerful, if unexpected, point of departure for a wide-ranging investigation of important social trends during this period. The emergence of financialization as a key dimension of the global economy shapes a variety of aspects of contemporary jazz culture, and jazz culture comments upon this dimension in turn. During the stateside return of Dexter Gordon in the mid-1970s, the cultural turmoil of the New York fiscal crisis served as a crucial backdrop to understanding the resonance of Gordon’s appearances in the city. The financial markets directly inform the structural upheaval that major label jazz subsidiaries must navigate in the music industry of the early twenty-first century, and they inform the disruptive impact of urban redevelopment in communities that have relied upon jazz as a site of economic vibrancy. In examining these issues, The Jazz Bubble seeks to intensify conversations surrounding music, culture, and political economy.

Chapter four describes the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board and economic development policy on the Iron Range. The IRRRB was formed in the 1940s to diversify the Iron Range's economy and ...
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Chapter four describes the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board and economic development policy on the Iron Range. The IRRRB was formed in the 1940s to diversify the Iron Range's economy and ensure that tax money from mining was spent on long-term investments. Yet the IRRRB was enmeshed in controversy from its birth. In the late 1950s and 1960s it became a model for a short-lived national agency designed to support declining regions: the Area Redevelopment Administration (ARA). This brief federal program was soon abandoned. The IRRRB has also struggled to develop new industries on the Iron Range, often coming under fire for well-publicized boondoggles.Less

Economic Development Policy, Regional and Local : The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board

Jeffrey T. Manuel

Published in print: 2015-09-15

Chapter four describes the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board and economic development policy on the Iron Range. The IRRRB was formed in the 1940s to diversify the Iron Range's economy and ensure that tax money from mining was spent on long-term investments. Yet the IRRRB was enmeshed in controversy from its birth. In the late 1950s and 1960s it became a model for a short-lived national agency designed to support declining regions: the Area Redevelopment Administration (ARA). This brief federal program was soon abandoned. The IRRRB has also struggled to develop new industries on the Iron Range, often coming under fire for well-publicized boondoggles.

This book brings theoretical understandings of migration and displacement (including displacement as a result of urban redevelopment programmes) together with empirical illustrations of the varying ...
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This book brings theoretical understandings of migration and displacement (including displacement as a result of urban redevelopment programmes) together with empirical illustrations of the varying ways in which communities respond. These responses can be negative, divisive and exclusionary. But responses to migration and displacement can also be positive and mutually supportive, building solidarities both within and between communities, whether locally or transnationally. Drawing upon original research, the book includes case studies from varying international contexts, illustrating how different communities respond to the challenges of migration and displacement. These include examples of responses through community arts – such as poetry, story-telling and photography, exploring the scope for building communities (including transnational, diaspora communities) of solidarity and social justice.
The concluding chapters identify potential implications for public policy and professional practice, aiming to promote communities of solidarity, addressing the structural causes of widening inequalities, taking account of different interests, including those related to social class, gender, ethnicity, ability and age.Less

Marjorie Mayo

Published in print: 2017-07-05

This book brings theoretical understandings of migration and displacement (including displacement as a result of urban redevelopment programmes) together with empirical illustrations of the varying ways in which communities respond. These responses can be negative, divisive and exclusionary. But responses to migration and displacement can also be positive and mutually supportive, building solidarities both within and between communities, whether locally or transnationally. Drawing upon original research, the book includes case studies from varying international contexts, illustrating how different communities respond to the challenges of migration and displacement. These include examples of responses through community arts – such as poetry, story-telling and photography, exploring the scope for building communities (including transnational, diaspora communities) of solidarity and social justice.
The concluding chapters identify potential implications for public policy and professional practice, aiming to promote communities of solidarity, addressing the structural causes of widening inequalities, taking account of different interests, including those related to social class, gender, ethnicity, ability and age.

This chapter details the surprising encounter between the neighborhood-based planning groups and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA). The neighborhood groups had originally invited the SFRA ...
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This chapter details the surprising encounter between the neighborhood-based planning groups and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA). The neighborhood groups had originally invited the SFRA to engage in collaborative planning for the Mission District, partly because they viewed the urban renewal program as the best tool to prevent the speculative displacement that might be triggered by the coming BART stations, and partly because they worried that the agency might otherwise try to clear the Mission. In fact, the SFRA had never planned to clear the neighborhood, and it proved willing to collaborate with the new Mission Council on Redevelopment (MCOR). However, problems arose when the SFRA revealed a plan that would have radically transformed the areas immediately surrounding the coming BART stations.Less

Who Holds Final Authority? : The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and the Mission Council on Redevelopment

Ocean Howell

Published in print: 2015-11-17

This chapter details the surprising encounter between the neighborhood-based planning groups and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA). The neighborhood groups had originally invited the SFRA to engage in collaborative planning for the Mission District, partly because they viewed the urban renewal program as the best tool to prevent the speculative displacement that might be triggered by the coming BART stations, and partly because they worried that the agency might otherwise try to clear the Mission. In fact, the SFRA had never planned to clear the neighborhood, and it proved willing to collaborate with the new Mission Council on Redevelopment (MCOR). However, problems arose when the SFRA revealed a plan that would have radically transformed the areas immediately surrounding the coming BART stations.

Several planning documents connected to redevelopment efforts of the last quarter of the twentieth century are examined in chapter 7 in combination with drastic changes in the landscape of the town ...
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Several planning documents connected to redevelopment efforts of the last quarter of the twentieth century are examined in chapter 7 in combination with drastic changes in the landscape of the town and altered community social interactions. I assert that urban renewal resulted not only in drastic changes in the material and economic landscape, but more importantly, was also a process of subjectivization. Increasingly residents subjected each other to bureaucratic demands suggesting that, at least tactically, they had adopted the language of neoliberalism--renewal, and management--enunciating a new community comprised of atomized individuals adopting entrepreneurial attitudes to space, labor, and governance. At stake was the capacity for the materiality of landscape to remember, reproduce, and channel social relations in a manner responsive to the exigencies of uncertain economy.Less

The Destructive Character : Renewal and Memory

Michael P. Roller

Published in print: 2018-11-06

Several planning documents connected to redevelopment efforts of the last quarter of the twentieth century are examined in chapter 7 in combination with drastic changes in the landscape of the town and altered community social interactions. I assert that urban renewal resulted not only in drastic changes in the material and economic landscape, but more importantly, was also a process of subjectivization. Increasingly residents subjected each other to bureaucratic demands suggesting that, at least tactically, they had adopted the language of neoliberalism--renewal, and management--enunciating a new community comprised of atomized individuals adopting entrepreneurial attitudes to space, labor, and governance. At stake was the capacity for the materiality of landscape to remember, reproduce, and channel social relations in a manner responsive to the exigencies of uncertain economy.

This chapter examines how community nonprofit organizations are mobilizing substantial outside funding, including government support, to preserve and rebuild disadvantaged neighborhoods in greater ...
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This chapter examines how community nonprofit organizations are mobilizing substantial outside funding, including government support, to preserve and rebuild disadvantaged neighborhoods in greater Philadelphia. It shows that actors and institutions situated beyond the city limits play an important supporting role in the urban redevelopment work undertaken by community-based nonprofits. These outsiders exert influence through community development financial institutions whose resources are helping in the process of rebuilding neighborhoods. This chapter explains how neighborhood redevelopment became a nonprofit responsibility and how community organizations obtain investment capital. It considers “walking-around money” used by legislators in Pennsylvania to help community development corporations and other nonprofits carry out projects in their districts. It also asks whether community reinvestment has been effective in reshaping the city.Less

Neighborhood Nonprofits Tap Outside Resources for Development

Carolyn T. Adams

Published in print: 2014-09-29

This chapter examines how community nonprofit organizations are mobilizing substantial outside funding, including government support, to preserve and rebuild disadvantaged neighborhoods in greater Philadelphia. It shows that actors and institutions situated beyond the city limits play an important supporting role in the urban redevelopment work undertaken by community-based nonprofits. These outsiders exert influence through community development financial institutions whose resources are helping in the process of rebuilding neighborhoods. This chapter explains how neighborhood redevelopment became a nonprofit responsibility and how community organizations obtain investment capital. It considers “walking-around money” used by legislators in Pennsylvania to help community development corporations and other nonprofits carry out projects in their districts. It also asks whether community reinvestment has been effective in reshaping the city.

Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental, Public and Welfare

The chapter presents a theoretical model that seeks to answer the question of why former squatter settlements tend to upgrade/redevelop at a slower pace than otherwise similar settlements originating ...
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The chapter presents a theoretical model that seeks to answer the question of why former squatter settlements tend to upgrade/redevelop at a slower pace than otherwise similar settlements originating in the formal sector. We argue that squatter settlers' initial strategy to access urban land creates a ‘legacy effect’ that curtails settlement upgrading possibilities even after the settlements are granted property titles. This chapter tests our model using the case of Cochabamba, Bolivia, and obtains results consistent with the theoretical model prediction. The chapters's results suggest that the commonly used ‘benign neglect while keeping the threat of eviction’ policy has profound impacts on how land is developed in the informal sector and this poses costly consequences for local governments after legalization.Less

The Legacy Effect of Squatter Settlements on Urban Redevelopment

Ignacio A. NavarroGeoffrey K. Turnbull

Published in print: 2010-10-28

The chapter presents a theoretical model that seeks to answer the question of why former squatter settlements tend to upgrade/redevelop at a slower pace than otherwise similar settlements originating in the formal sector. We argue that squatter settlers' initial strategy to access urban land creates a ‘legacy effect’ that curtails settlement upgrading possibilities even after the settlements are granted property titles. This chapter tests our model using the case of Cochabamba, Bolivia, and obtains results consistent with the theoretical model prediction. The chapters's results suggest that the commonly used ‘benign neglect while keeping the threat of eviction’ policy has profound impacts on how land is developed in the informal sector and this poses costly consequences for local governments after legalization.

At a time when lower-income Americans face a desperate struggle to find affordable rental housing in many cities, After the Projects investigates the contested spatial politics of public housing ...
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At a time when lower-income Americans face a desperate struggle to find affordable rental housing in many cities, After the Projects investigates the contested spatial politics of public housing development and redevelopment. Public housing practices differ markedly from city to city and, collectively, reveal deeply held American attitudes about poverty and how the poorest should be governed. The book exposes the range of outcomes from the US federal government’s HOPE VI program for public housing transformation, focused on nuanced accounts of four very different ways of implementing this same national initiative—in Boston, New Orleans, Tucson, and San Francisco. It draws upon more than two hundred interviews, analysis of internal documents about each project, and nearly fifteen years of visits to these neighborhoods. The central aim is to understand how and why some cities, when redeveloping public housing, have attempted to minimize the presence of the poorest residents in their new mixed-income communities, while other cities have instead tried to serve the maximum number of extremely low-income households. The book shows that these socially and politically revealing decisions are rooted in distinctly different kinds of governance constellations—each yielding quite different sorts of community pressures. These have been forged over many decades in response to each city’s own struggle with previous efforts at urban renewal. In contrast to other books that have focused on housing in a single city, this volume offers comparative analysis and a national picture, while also discussing four emblematic communities with an unprecedented level of detail.Less

After the Projects : Public Housing Redevelopment and the Governance of the Poorest Americans

Lawrence J. Vale

Published in print: 2018-12-27

At a time when lower-income Americans face a desperate struggle to find affordable rental housing in many cities, After the Projects investigates the contested spatial politics of public housing development and redevelopment. Public housing practices differ markedly from city to city and, collectively, reveal deeply held American attitudes about poverty and how the poorest should be governed. The book exposes the range of outcomes from the US federal government’s HOPE VI program for public housing transformation, focused on nuanced accounts of four very different ways of implementing this same national initiative—in Boston, New Orleans, Tucson, and San Francisco. It draws upon more than two hundred interviews, analysis of internal documents about each project, and nearly fifteen years of visits to these neighborhoods. The central aim is to understand how and why some cities, when redeveloping public housing, have attempted to minimize the presence of the poorest residents in their new mixed-income communities, while other cities have instead tried to serve the maximum number of extremely low-income households. The book shows that these socially and politically revealing decisions are rooted in distinctly different kinds of governance constellations—each yielding quite different sorts of community pressures. These have been forged over many decades in response to each city’s own struggle with previous efforts at urban renewal. In contrast to other books that have focused on housing in a single city, this volume offers comparative analysis and a national picture, while also discussing four emblematic communities with an unprecedented level of detail.

This chapter addresses the effects of urban redevelopment on Mexican American barrios. It shows how redevelopment policy has conferred little benefit, social or economic, on barrio communities in ...
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This chapter addresses the effects of urban redevelopment on Mexican American barrios. It shows how redevelopment policy has conferred little benefit, social or economic, on barrio communities in decline since the 1960s; indeed, more housing for the poor has been destroyed than created. Despite campaigns of resistance by barrio residents, numerous communities were destroyed, partially dismantled, and/or excluded from the benefits of redevelopment programs. Hence, the logic of redevelopment destabilized rather than reinvigorated the economy of the barrio. Redevelopment policy as practiced in this society viewed barrios as expendable in relation to regional economic development strategy. Barrios, being generally located near downtown business districts, were prime targets for redevelopment, and residents generally lacked the political power to prevent their being exploited by outside economic interests.Less

Urban Redevelopment and Mexican American Barrios in the Socio-Spatial Order

Nestor Rodriguez

Published in print: 2012-11-05

This chapter addresses the effects of urban redevelopment on Mexican American barrios. It shows how redevelopment policy has conferred little benefit, social or economic, on barrio communities in decline since the 1960s; indeed, more housing for the poor has been destroyed than created. Despite campaigns of resistance by barrio residents, numerous communities were destroyed, partially dismantled, and/or excluded from the benefits of redevelopment programs. Hence, the logic of redevelopment destabilized rather than reinvigorated the economy of the barrio. Redevelopment policy as practiced in this society viewed barrios as expendable in relation to regional economic development strategy. Barrios, being generally located near downtown business districts, were prime targets for redevelopment, and residents generally lacked the political power to prevent their being exploited by outside economic interests.

Chapter One examines pastiche in the shopping mall and cultural heritage site Xintiandi, before discussing the site’s buried modern art histories marred by cross-cultural conflicts. Xintiandi ...
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Chapter One examines pastiche in the shopping mall and cultural heritage site Xintiandi, before discussing the site’s buried modern art histories marred by cross-cultural conflicts. Xintiandi physically surrounds China’s first communist meeting site of 1921, today memorialized as a museum. The complex was designed with reference to the vernacular homes of its formerly foreign occupied French Concession setting, and is officially celebrated for its “East-meets-West” and “Old-meets-New” architecture, even while the construction demolished most of the site’s existing homes and dislocated thousands of working class residents. This chapter analyzes how Xintiandi’s seemingly benign East-meets-West façades mask collusions between the Chinese Communist Party’s autocratic state power and capitalist development, while romanticizing Shanghai’s modern cosmopolitan legacy. The chapter analyzes examples of Xintiandi’s repressed cultural histories, including the revolutionary art and design experiments of Pang Xunqin, founder of the 1930s avant-garde collective, The Storm Society, leftist writings and art promoted by Lu Xun, and the major Cultural Revolution Era debate sparked by Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1972 documentary, Chung Kuo Cina. The chapter argues that the official admonishment of Shanghai-based cultural projects by Pang and Antonioni speak to collisions between Shanghai’s semi-colonial past, Maoist socialism, and Cultural Revolution Era totalitarianism that still resonate in Shanghai today.Less

From the ruins of heaven on earth

Jenny Lin

Published in print: 2019-01-01

Chapter One examines pastiche in the shopping mall and cultural heritage site Xintiandi, before discussing the site’s buried modern art histories marred by cross-cultural conflicts. Xintiandi physically surrounds China’s first communist meeting site of 1921, today memorialized as a museum. The complex was designed with reference to the vernacular homes of its formerly foreign occupied French Concession setting, and is officially celebrated for its “East-meets-West” and “Old-meets-New” architecture, even while the construction demolished most of the site’s existing homes and dislocated thousands of working class residents. This chapter analyzes how Xintiandi’s seemingly benign East-meets-West façades mask collusions between the Chinese Communist Party’s autocratic state power and capitalist development, while romanticizing Shanghai’s modern cosmopolitan legacy. The chapter analyzes examples of Xintiandi’s repressed cultural histories, including the revolutionary art and design experiments of Pang Xunqin, founder of the 1930s avant-garde collective, The Storm Society, leftist writings and art promoted by Lu Xun, and the major Cultural Revolution Era debate sparked by Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1972 documentary, Chung Kuo Cina. The chapter argues that the official admonishment of Shanghai-based cultural projects by Pang and Antonioni speak to collisions between Shanghai’s semi-colonial past, Maoist socialism, and Cultural Revolution Era totalitarianism that still resonate in Shanghai today.

In the immediate postwar period, there grew a sharp divergence between the municipal government and the institutions of the Mission District when it came to ideas about planning and urban life. ...
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In the immediate postwar period, there grew a sharp divergence between the municipal government and the institutions of the Mission District when it came to ideas about planning and urban life. Nowhere was this divergence more pronounced than around the subject of race. While citywide agencies operated under discriminatory policies and assumptions, the institutions of the Mission District became more racially egalitarian than they had ever been. The Merchants, local Catholic parish churches, and social service providers all began to view Latinos as a racial minority, but also surprisingly, to welcome them as such. The growing acceptance of the neighborhood's multiethnicity would prove an invaluable asset in the planning debates of the following decade.Less

Latino as Worker : The Changing Politics of Race in the City and the Neighborhood

Ocean Howell

Published in print: 2015-11-17

In the immediate postwar period, there grew a sharp divergence between the municipal government and the institutions of the Mission District when it came to ideas about planning and urban life. Nowhere was this divergence more pronounced than around the subject of race. While citywide agencies operated under discriminatory policies and assumptions, the institutions of the Mission District became more racially egalitarian than they had ever been. The Merchants, local Catholic parish churches, and social service providers all began to view Latinos as a racial minority, but also surprisingly, to welcome them as such. The growing acceptance of the neighborhood's multiethnicity would prove an invaluable asset in the planning debates of the following decade.

By the 1960s the urban renewal program was well underway, and it was largely controlled by the downtown planning regime. The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) had cleared over 1,280 acres in ...
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By the 1960s the urban renewal program was well underway, and it was largely controlled by the downtown planning regime. The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) had cleared over 1,280 acres in the Fillmore (or Western Addition) neighborhood, displacing more than 13,500 people, mostly African Americans. As the built environment of the Mission District deteriorated, local institutions began to worry that the SFRA might be planning something similar for their neighborhood. They also worried that the coming BART stations might trigger speculative displacement. In response, a social service agency called the Mission Neighborhood Centers (MNC) produced a study of the Mission in 1960. The document identified problems with a deteriorating environment and inadequate services, but also identified strengths in the neighborhood's multiethnic character and longstanding institutions.Less

A “Salvable Neighborhood” : Urban Renewal, Model Cities, and the Rise of a Social Planning Regime

Ocean Howell

Published in print: 2015-11-17

By the 1960s the urban renewal program was well underway, and it was largely controlled by the downtown planning regime. The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) had cleared over 1,280 acres in the Fillmore (or Western Addition) neighborhood, displacing more than 13,500 people, mostly African Americans. As the built environment of the Mission District deteriorated, local institutions began to worry that the SFRA might be planning something similar for their neighborhood. They also worried that the coming BART stations might trigger speculative displacement. In response, a social service agency called the Mission Neighborhood Centers (MNC) produced a study of the Mission in 1960. The document identified problems with a deteriorating environment and inadequate services, but also identified strengths in the neighborhood's multiethnic character and longstanding institutions.

Neighborhood groups like the Mission Council on Redevelopment and later the Mission Coalition Organization were eager to collaborate with the SFRA. But under urban renewal law, the SFRA was unable to ...
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Neighborhood groups like the Mission Council on Redevelopment and later the Mission Coalition Organization were eager to collaborate with the SFRA. But under urban renewal law, the SFRA was unable to give neighborhood groups veto power over any specific plan. Primarily for this reason, neighborhood groups came out against the plan, eventually succeeding in blocking it. Soon thereafter, Mayor Joseph Alioto nominated the Mission for a grant under Model Cities, a Great Society program that funded neighborhood-based planning efforts. Thus was created the Mission Model Neighborhood Corporation (MMNC), a local planning authority. Collaborating with the SFRA, the MMNC built public housing, began social programs, and had a number of other successes. Though it was a multiethnic organization, it received some challenges from the Latino left, particularly a group called Los Siete de la Raza. However, the chapter argues that the ultimate failure of the organization is best explained by the Nixon administration's defunding of Model Cities.Less

The Return to the City within a City : The Mission Coalition Organization and the Devolution of Planning Power

Ocean Howell

Published in print: 2015-11-17

Neighborhood groups like the Mission Council on Redevelopment and later the Mission Coalition Organization were eager to collaborate with the SFRA. But under urban renewal law, the SFRA was unable to give neighborhood groups veto power over any specific plan. Primarily for this reason, neighborhood groups came out against the plan, eventually succeeding in blocking it. Soon thereafter, Mayor Joseph Alioto nominated the Mission for a grant under Model Cities, a Great Society program that funded neighborhood-based planning efforts. Thus was created the Mission Model Neighborhood Corporation (MMNC), a local planning authority. Collaborating with the SFRA, the MMNC built public housing, began social programs, and had a number of other successes. Though it was a multiethnic organization, it received some challenges from the Latino left, particularly a group called Los Siete de la Raza. However, the chapter argues that the ultimate failure of the organization is best explained by the Nixon administration's defunding of Model Cities.

Chapter 5 takes up the case of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) and its tumultuous relationship with San Francisco’s jazz community. In the late 1950s, under the pretext of urban ...
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Chapter 5 takes up the case of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) and its tumultuous relationship with San Francisco’s jazz community. In the late 1950s, under the pretext of urban renewal, the SFRA embarked upon a destructive three-decade initiative in the city’s Fillmore district that displaced tens of thousands of local residents, decimated the area’s small businesses, and dismantled the neighborhood’s cultural ecology. Proceeding from an analysis of California’s community redevelopment agencies, chapter 5 profiles the musical life of the Fillmore in the postwar era and chronicles the experience of those affected by urban redevelopment, including such figures as John “Jimbo” Edwards, owner of Jimbo’s Bop City, and Leola King, proprietor of numerous venues in the Fillmore. Less

Jazz and the Right to the City : Jazz Venues and the Legacy of Urban Redevelopment in California

Dale Chapman

Published in print: 2018-04-03

Chapter 5 takes up the case of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) and its tumultuous relationship with San Francisco’s jazz community. In the late 1950s, under the pretext of urban renewal, the SFRA embarked upon a destructive three-decade initiative in the city’s Fillmore district that displaced tens of thousands of local residents, decimated the area’s small businesses, and dismantled the neighborhood’s cultural ecology. Proceeding from an analysis of California’s community redevelopment agencies, chapter 5 profiles the musical life of the Fillmore in the postwar era and chronicles the experience of those affected by urban redevelopment, including such figures as John “Jimbo” Edwards, owner of Jimbo’s Bop City, and Leola King, proprietor of numerous venues in the Fillmore.

In a bid to atone for its midcentury actions, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, beginning in the 1980s, set about planning a “jazz preservation district” to be located in the Fillmore ...
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In a bid to atone for its midcentury actions, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, beginning in the 1980s, set about planning a “jazz preservation district” to be located in the Fillmore neighborhood. Along with a program for small-business loans, the SFRA initiative originally took the form of a combined multiplex and jazz venue, pairing AMC Theaters with an outpost of the New York-based Blue Note club. While this first proposal was never realized, the SFRA did later succeed in launching a different mixed-use project that mixed affordable and market-rate housing with a branch of the Oakland-based Yoshi’s jazz club. Chapter 6 examines the economic and cultural challenges facing the Fillmore redevelopment district at the turn of the millennium.Less

Dale Chapman

Published in print: 2018-04-03

In a bid to atone for its midcentury actions, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, beginning in the 1980s, set about planning a “jazz preservation district” to be located in the Fillmore neighborhood. Along with a program for small-business loans, the SFRA initiative originally took the form of a combined multiplex and jazz venue, pairing AMC Theaters with an outpost of the New York-based Blue Note club. While this first proposal was never realized, the SFRA did later succeed in launching a different mixed-use project that mixed affordable and market-rate housing with a branch of the Oakland-based Yoshi’s jazz club. Chapter 6 examines the economic and cultural challenges facing the Fillmore redevelopment district at the turn of the millennium.

This chapter examines urban redevelopment in Chicago. It explores the strategies used to replan and rebuild local public housing communities and the logic of public housing redevelopment in ...
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This chapter examines urban redevelopment in Chicago. It explores the strategies used to replan and rebuild local public housing communities and the logic of public housing redevelopment in contemporary Chicago. It also evaluates the neighborhood impacts of housing development on street-level redevelopment. This chapter also highlights the problem with mixed-income neighborhood development in Chicago and the urbanist builders' violation of Jane Jacobs' precepts.Less

Wresting the New From the Once Modern

Published in print: 2010-11-15

This chapter examines urban redevelopment in Chicago. It explores the strategies used to replan and rebuild local public housing communities and the logic of public housing redevelopment in contemporary Chicago. It also evaluates the neighborhood impacts of housing development on street-level redevelopment. This chapter also highlights the problem with mixed-income neighborhood development in Chicago and the urbanist builders' violation of Jane Jacobs' precepts.

Social mix strategies in Australia are almost invariably associated with the large-scale regeneration of public housing estates. These redevelopment projects usually occur as public-private ...
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Social mix strategies in Australia are almost invariably associated with the large-scale regeneration of public housing estates. These redevelopment projects usually occur as public-private partnerships and are funded in part by the sale of new-build private housing at market rates. The first of such schemes to be implemented in Melbourne, Australia, involved the displacement of about 1,000 public tenants and will produce a 50:50 mix of public and private dwellings. The project is not yet complete and the effects of the strategy have not been evaluated. Yet this has not prevented the initiation of at least three more public housing estate redevelopments in Melbourne, all of which will involve displacement, demolition, new construction and selective relocation back to an area ‘regenerated’ through a reduction in public and increase in private housing stock. The chapter argues that notwithstanding the rhetoric of the benefits of social mix, the primary object of this approach is to create new opportunities for private sector investment in high-risk areas in as clear a case of third-wave, state-led gentrification as could be. This approach is contrasted with the rather lower profile, state-wide ‘neighbourhood renewal program’, which involves state and local government investment in services and infrastructure in 19 ‘disadvantaged communities’, including some other public housing estates. The programme has no discourse of social mix, no displacement, regular monitoring and evaluation, and, so far, apparent success and community acceptance.Less

Gentrification without social mixing in the rapidly urbanising world of Australasia

Published in print: 2011-10-19

Social mix strategies in Australia are almost invariably associated with the large-scale regeneration of public housing estates. These redevelopment projects usually occur as public-private partnerships and are funded in part by the sale of new-build private housing at market rates. The first of such schemes to be implemented in Melbourne, Australia, involved the displacement of about 1,000 public tenants and will produce a 50:50 mix of public and private dwellings. The project is not yet complete and the effects of the strategy have not been evaluated. Yet this has not prevented the initiation of at least three more public housing estate redevelopments in Melbourne, all of which will involve displacement, demolition, new construction and selective relocation back to an area ‘regenerated’ through a reduction in public and increase in private housing stock. The chapter argues that notwithstanding the rhetoric of the benefits of social mix, the primary object of this approach is to create new opportunities for private sector investment in high-risk areas in as clear a case of third-wave, state-led gentrification as could be. This approach is contrasted with the rather lower profile, state-wide ‘neighbourhood renewal program’, which involves state and local government investment in services and infrastructure in 19 ‘disadvantaged communities’, including some other public housing estates. The programme has no discourse of social mix, no displacement, regular monitoring and evaluation, and, so far, apparent success and community acceptance.